That appears to be the consensus of opinion from notable footballing pundits such as Bobby Robson, Matt Le Tissier, Lee Dixon and the great Charlie Nicholas.

I expect a strong Arsenal side out today with all of them fit, it will depend if he risks them all and my guess is he won’t, but they’ll be there in the squad.

The tricky one is whether he starts with Diaby or Rosicky, for me Diaby, more imposing, stronger and likes a shot. The other side is whether he play Diarra, Hleb or Eboue, I hope he plays Diarra with Hleb coming on as a sub, but I suspect it’ll be Eboue, and that is a risk as that dirty bastard Mikel will be trying to bait him and get him sent off.

Central midfield, no brainer, Cesc and Flamini.

Back four no change and Robin and Ade up top, Theo’s injured so Bendtner and Eduardo on the bench with Hleb, Senderos or Gilberto with Lehmann.

I saw a picture of ex gooner Freddie in the Sunday Times this morning and I had to laugh, Freddie said he left West Ham to win things and went to a club that had more ambition, well Freddie you can join the list of deluded Arsenal greats that thought the same, Aka Patrick, Thierry and Edu, so eat your heart out mate and enjoy today!

Finally there were a lot of gay slurs in the comments section yesterday and yes I know they were tongue in cheek, but I have to say, there were a lot of cracking retorts so well done Grover’s, for not only being the best bloggers, but the wittiest too.

To re-iterate on those points, it’s not gay to love men in red, it’s normal. It’s not gay to love those men in red more than you love you other half’s, it’s normal. And finally it’s not gay to love the subs either, they’re all part of the same team and it’s normal!

So that’s it, Le Grove predicted the Wenger smokescreen and now our injured trio of Cesc, Hleb and Flamini are all back in training, Wenger says that he wants Cesc to play and he will leave all three until Sunday to make a final decision.

I fully expect Flamini and Cesc to Start, Hleb to come on as rub-a-dub, I’m not sure whether Robin will come on or start, but the smart money is on a start.

So my guess would be the following.

Almunia

Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy

Diaby Cesc Flamini Rosicky

Ade Robin

Subs Bendtner Hleb Senderos Lehmann and Diarra.

I expect us to fly out of the traps and stuff them, I really do, it’s the first time for 3 months where we have had our team of choice playing and that will make a massive difference.

They have no Essien or Drogba, both our bogey men, they still have deflection specialist fat Frank, but dim witted Terry is not the player he was and if Joe Cole stays on his feet and doesn’t try for a penalty every time he gets the ball, I can’t see them hurting us.

King Billy will be mega up for it, and it’s his first real chance to get one over his old team, as last season we were short of players each time we played them.

And that’s why I expect to see Diarra play, I think he’ll want to prove something.

We’ll have to watch Kalou as he is a little slippery, but they’ll have to watch us, look how many match winners we’ll have on show.

I’d like to play Theo on the right, he tore them apart in the Carling cup and now he’s a year older, sadly he is injured, so Diaby will have to do unless Hleb is fit enough to start. I really expect Ade to shine, he loves the boy wonder playing alongside him and he steps up to the plate for the big games.

So tomorrow I expect nothing other than a win. Maybe Ade will follow in his hero’s footsteps and get a hatrick (Kanu)

Don’t disappoint me Arsenal, I love you so much.

Finally Arsene has been appealing to the fans to leave Cashley alone, he was a product of the youth set up and things happen, people move on and so should we, so please don’t boo, hiss, spit, throw missiles or hope he breaks his both legs horribly.

Yeah, right Arsene, go for it Grover’s lets all let that greedy little ingrate chav shit know what we think of him, how much we hate him and boo him for not only the 90 minutes, but also the 10 minutes in the warm up.

After writing a rash piece about who I thought could be leaving Arsenal this winter, I reassessed what I wrote and then considered some of your comments.

One of the comments from Hadley read:

‘I really do feel that too many Arsenal ’supporters’ have been too quick to jump on the anti-Jens bandwagon which has been perpetrated by the media and opposition fans ever since he joined Arsenal. Yes he is eccentric but as far as I’m aware he hasn’t shot anyone – I’m sure that much of the anti-Lehmann baiting over the years has been partly due to the fact that he is German (you even said it yourself with his ‘German Antics’.)

Robbie Keane stamps on his feet like a pathetic spoilt child and Sky say he is just ‘using his experience’, yet when Lehmann pushed him away HE is accused of being childish. If Keane jumped on my feet like that I’d nut him one. Did anyone stop to consider that maybe Wenger has mainly kept faith with Almunia because he has done okay and wants to send a message to the rest of the team that if you come in and do well you wont immediately be replaced by experience (a la Flamini.)

I don’t know what Wenger sees in training but apart from those 2 freak lapses of concentration Lehmann’s performances this season and last have been excellent – against Wales he saved 4 one on one’s. Whether Wenger’s stats or what he sees in training tells him that Jens is deteriorating or not I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return to the team and sooner rather than later. Almunia is a nice guy and a decent premiership keeper but he is not (at least yet) in the highest class that Lehmann is (or at least certainly was) or that Seaman was. We’ve now conceded 7 in the last 4 games so it’ll be interesting to see what Wenger does midweek.’

This got me thinking… had Jens shot someone? If he did, how did he dispose of the body… I reckon he would cannibalise the remains because consuming the evidence is the best way, right?

Jokes aside, maybe I was too rash in judging Lehmann.

Maybe you can compare this situation to a beautiful woman (This metaphor can be reversed)?

When you are with a beautiful woman you are much more likely to forgive her misgivings. i.e. Personality deficiencies, mood swings, nagging, but if you are with and ugly woman, they tend to hack you off pretty quickly and you are a lot quicker to criticise.

Lehmann is perhaps the ugly woman of goal keeping. He is unorthodox, he whines and moans at corner kicks and he often has a moment of handling madness in a match that resonates in the mind long after the game. I think his craziness highlights his flaws because everyone is watching him after he causes as scene.

A keeper like Cech (Perhaps the Vanessa Feltz Agnes Dean of the Keeping world) keeps his mouth shut and just gets on with it. He has made mistakes this season, but no one is crowing about his ability.

What I am saying is people love to blame Lehmann. People blame him for letting in 30 yard screamers, people moan about him letting in bullet 2 yard headers and people moan about him hoofing the ball when he could have laid it off.

So half a season in, with Almunia at the helm, what do we think as Arsenal fans?

Almunia has never really set the goalkeeping world alight with a commanding performance. Many of you will say he hasn’t done much wrong this season but lets be honest, he hasn’t needed to do this much this season. My Granny could have played in goal most of the matches this year… seriously… she is good.

Almunia made a mistake in the ManU game which in the end cost us the 3 points. Since then he has been ok. He played well at Villa, he let in a soft goal against Newcastle (MYLES PALMER SAID SO) and he rushed out needlessly against ‘Boro.

Overall you would have to say he has been average.

So who is the lesser of two evils (Is that fair?)?

Jens Lehmann has huge experience, he has played some amazing games for us and I think we might need him coming into the crucial part of the season. Can we afford another Almunia rush of blood to the head against Chelsea? Can we finish the season league winners with Almunia in goal? I don’t think so.

So if we let Jens back, will he revert back to his corner Theatrics and shoddy handling?

Gunnerblog and Goonerholic think that Wednesday’s game was a good bye Jens game, and if I’m honest, I would probably agree with that. Too much bad behaviour from the German over the last three months!

Wenger has been making some interesting noises though, Wednesday morning he said,

That would indicate to me that he is off in Januaury or it is being discussed. However after the game on Wednesday he said,

‘I feel he had a good game, I don’t think he can do a lot on the goal. I decided to play him because he’s a hundred per-cent dedicated in training, because he’s a top class keeper and I want everybody to keep in competition if I can. For example, Fabianski behind is top class and he will play on Tuesday in Blackburn.’

Make what you will of Wengers comments!

For me personally, I have more confidence in Jens than I do in Almunia. I think he makes the better saves and he is more likely to rescue a game for you than throw it away. Almunia has been solidish (sic) this season, but he hasn’t excelled by any stretch of the imagination. I think what this whole article points to, not just with me but with all Arsenal fans, is that we are not happy with the Goalkeeping situation at Arsenal. The same was true last year with the right back slot, an issue was superbly rectified in the summer.

So what do we know? Well, Jens is off in the summer, thats for sure. I don’t think Almunia is a long term solution, so I think we should either put Fabianski in as number one next year (and hope), or purchase a keeper who merits the number one jersey at a club like Arsenal. I think goalkeeper is the one position in football you don’t get the chance to make mistakes in. You can either hack it, or you’re out (Manninger, Wright, Taibi). There is no bedding in period like normal players get, so let hope Arsene gets it right this summer.

I know I have been a critic of Jens in the past, but he is still a quality keeper who offers us more than the average Almunia. That said, we know that Big Al will be starting on Sunday against the mighty chavs, a game that I pray isn’t decided by a goalkeeping error!

On the subject of Chelsea, Arsene Wenger is giving nothing away with regards to who will be back, it seems players once thought injured may yet be un-injured (<-not a word I know)! I feel I owe Blogger Geoff an apology, for it was he and he alone who suggested Wenger maybe using a some form of smokescreen to confuse Avram and Co with regards to injuries. Read here for confirmation of the shocking truth.